John Hathorne

John Hathorne (August 1641-10 May 1717) was a a merchant and a justice of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who presided over the Salem Witch Trials.

Biography
John Hathorne was born in August 1641 in Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony to Major William Hathorne. On 22 March 1674, Hathorne married "old planter" Thomas Gardner's daughter Ruth and built a small business empire in Salem, the West Indies, and the northern New England territory of Maine. He mediated disputes in the Massachussets Bay Colony and became a magistrate, and in 1692 he was one of the justices in the Salem Witch Trials. In the 1690s, he led militia forces during King William's War, fighting at Fort Nashwaak against France, the Mi'kmaq, and Acadians, and he died in 1717 in Salem.